New Data Challenge Left’s ‘Lawless’ Border Patrol Conspiracy Theory

Open-borders, pro-amnesty advocates have been waging a war on the legitimacy of the Border Patrol for years, but responses to government document requests on charge and conviction rates among agents show actual corruption levels do not match the critical rhetoric.

A D.C. legal foundation advocating for tougher immigration enforcement has obtained information that challenges a leftist narrative that the men and women patrolling our border are engaged in rampant corruption.

Information obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) going back to 2005 shows that suspicions of systemic criminality at the agency is not supported by data.

In response to IRLI’s public records request which asked for “Any and all original records showing the number of convictions and/or charges, alleged, and/or filed, related to or associated with any type of smuggling, bribery, bribe-taking, conspiracy, unauthorized access to DHS databases, and/or corruption involving Customs officials and/or Border Patrol agents,” shows that 159 charges and convictions have been brought against CBP officials since 2005. Considering the staff count of the agency is over 60,000, the ratio of staff to criminal activity is extremely low.

Commenting on the data, IRLI’s Executive Director and General Counsel Dale Wilcox said, “Just like the War on Cops, the Left has been trying to claim for years that our Border Patrol agents are corrupt, violent, and generally actually lawless. Our FOIA findings, however, severely dent this narrative.”

Wilcox commented further, “Like other critics, however, the open-borders groups that make such public allegations never give actual corruption data, such as the charge and/or conviction rates for CBP-wide employees or comparisons with other federal agencies, et cetera. Now we see why.”

The document production comes on the heels of the Supreme Court deciding to hear a case against a Border Patrol agent filed by the parents of a Mexican minor. Their son was shot and killed in 2010 after he and a group reportedly assaulted the agent with rocks.

The killing prompted attacks from open borders groups and two former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials who this month filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of the parents of the “unarmed” Mexican national teenager, Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca. The former officials assert, among other things, that the agency has created an environment of unaccountability and lawlessness and there are “high rates of corruption and misconduct.” They argue that “pre-hiring screening programs have been inadequate” and “the Border Patrol has become increasingly militarized since 2001.” They also argue that there is inadequate training on the use of force.

Moreover, the argument has been made that a hiring surge during President George W. Bush’s second term cut corners on agent vetting in an effort to “militarize” the border.

Breitbart Texas has reported extensively on the left-of-center campaign to restrict the ability of Border Patrol agents to defend themselves and on the false narratives used by open-borders advocates in their political and media attacks against Border Patrol agents. Breitbart also continuously reports on the work that U.S. Border Patrol agents do to protect our national and border security.

Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.